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 Oh snap! Michael Nutter said last night the city’s finances are getting even worse, in a non-shocking turn of events.
Citing the recent dismal performance of the city’s pension fund, and startlingly low real estate transfer-tax collections, Nutter said the city’s five-year deficit would be larger than the $1 billion estimate he made Nov. 6.
Just how much larger won’t likely become clear until January, Nutter said, when the administration will be better positioned to quantify it.
The city will begin drafting a new budget then, and administration officials expect to have a fuller picture of how weak the revenue is likely to be this year.
“The warning signs are clearly there, and we wanted to let people know so they weren’t surprised later,” Finance Director Rob Dubow said in a phone interview before the meeting last night.
Startlingly low real estate transfer-tax collections? Geeze, maybe Nutter is just trying for less opposition to his budget cuts. Or maybe we really are just going to have to default on everything and start all over as “Neo Philadelphia” in a few months.
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